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William “Bill” Oliver, Fake Special Forces, Delta, Army Ranger Training In Florida

William Oliver Courtesy The State Newspaper(Columbia, S.C)

Naples, Florida/Columbia, S.C. – This is a case we worked in coordination with Special Forces Poser Patrol for the past six months. Bill Oliver lives in Naples, Florida but his posing and lies began in his hometown of Columbia, S.C. Bill likes to tell everyone he is former Special Forces, Ranger and Delta Force. He uses these lies to push his training and tell the world how much of a hero he is. He has a lot of people in the community that look up to him as someone bigger than life. He gets lots of thanks for what he does on his Facebook page, for all the training he does and has given to Law Enforcement and Secret Service… or so he wants you to think.

William has been posting about his Delta/Ranger/Special Forces experience, and doing interviews with local newspapers and telling them how he was a Ranger and a Green Beret for over fourteen years. But no one in the SF community has ever heard of him, although the police in every town he has ever lived in know him all to well.

Oliver’s lies stretch back many years, the first of which we found in the State Newspaper out of Columbia, South Carolina. In this article he claims to have been an Army Ranger who is upset about the Black Beret being issued to all Soldiers. The Black Beret was traditionally worn by Army Rangers until 2001, when the Rangers switched to the Tan beret and the Black Beret was issued to all Soldiers. In the article, from 2001, he is quoted as saying “It devalues, Symbolically, what the Rangers stand for. Rangers have done something extraordinary and are different.” Below is the article and his post on his personal Facebook page.

As you can see from the screenshot above, Bill had everyone thinking he was a Ranger and a Hero, he ran several Do-Jo’s using these claims. He would tell people he was a Ranger, Special Forces and even tried to get a job telling the business owner he was Delta.

Once he moved to Florida, he kept up his lies and had several local articles written with the claims, sixteen years as a Ranger as well as Special Forces. Again using his claims to promote his business and training within his Do-Jo. Everyone thinks Oliver is a hero, having served in combat and using his hand-to-hand techniques in life or death situations.

In the below article he actually raises money for the Wounded Warrior Project, although the ones he lied to about his experience won’t take this to well, including the other Masters who were actually Green Berets and were under the impression Bill was.

Bill also promoted himself with the claims on his company’s website, which he has since changed. We reached out to our contacts with Delta before we checked records and of course he has never been heard of by anyone in Delta.

Not only was Bill making false claims of being Delta, SF and Ranger, he was also claiming to have trained Secret Service agents in hand to hand tactics. We spoke to one of the Secret Service members present when Bill was there. He tells us Bill was there on a tour, not to train anyone at all. But Bill took a photo in front of a mock-up of Air Force one and claimed it was the real deal and he was training the SS.

He also has his poor pooch in on his lies, he named him “Ranger” and the dog has a tab on his collar.

Bill’s stories stretch back many years, years that he was actually in trouble with the law, not serving in the Military. We found more than three dozen different charges and convictions stretching back years. From his hometown of Columbia, S.C. to his current home in Naples, Florida. Charges ranging from DUI, Drug Possession and Assault, he even spent some time in prison and is actually a Felon not a Green Beret.

William John Oliver (53)

William John Oliver (53)

State: NC | Date of Birth:

Address:

MaleSex

WHITERace

074Height

245Weight

Offense: LARCENY (ATTEMPTED) | Prison Start: 06/11/2003

These are just a few of the many charges we found, Mr. Oliver has an extensive criminal history and shows a pattern of fraud. He has several charges out of SC for fraud and writing fraudulent checks. We also ran his Military background to see if he had ever served, come to find out he had, just not anywhere near the capacity to which he claimed. He did earn his Airborne Wings, but he was a Carpentry Specialist, not Delta, Ranger or Special Forces.

After we finished the investigation on Bill, our colleague Steve over at SFPP reached out to him to let him know his gig was up. Oliver immediately went into apology mode, admitting it was all a lie. He told us he would post a public apology to his FB page, which he did do and is posted below. Before we could finish the article and get it posted, we got a call from a reporter form WINK news out of Fort Meyers, Florida telling us Bill had come to them to do an interview and publicly apologize on air. The thing is, why did he keep the lies up for so many years, why did he wait until now to apologize for lying and misleading people? We believe it is because he knew we were outing him and he was trying again to garner the sympathy of the public before the article posted.

We were told by the reporter that Bill admitted all his lies, and that he did take money based on his claims. But that he used it to help his Do-Jo, so I guess this is supposed to make it ok? We will update this story when the news report out of Florida airs with Bills public apology. Special thanks to Special Forces Poser Patrol who brought this case to our attention and worked alongside us, also to those that recognized this guys claims seemed to be to good to be true and questioned them.